Wishing for Life
by HeyTay271
Summary: The story begins with Kael ready to ambush Alyse. But she startles him with an alarming calm. She starts the story by trying to recall how the chaos all began.
1. Alyse

Kael stood behind her. Gun raised, and poised to shoot...he stealthily inched forward to get a clear shot.

"I know you're there Kael..."

He stopped, but stood uneasily, still ready to shoot. She spoke again.

"You've come to kill me to eh?...I'm sure you're quite the star of the show...or whatever you call it...

He shifted, he hadn't stopped moving the whole time they'd been there, he was anxious to be done with it, yet, her calm demeanor soothed him.

"My parents must be watching it thinking, Alyse do something!...What can I do...look.

He quickly regained his poise and got ready to shoot when he saw what she pulled from her bag.

"A fork. My father always said life had a natural sense of humor...Kael?"

"Yes?"

"Did you start with the gun or did you kill for it? Wait...Don't answer...I just realized I don't want to know...Do you remember how this all started? Geez its been a few days and its such a blur to me...Wait...now I remember..."


	2. The Teacher

"Alright everyone listen up! Listen! EVERYONE! Can I have your attention?"

Their teacher tried helplessly to ease down the noise to a dull roar. 39 students were almost shouting over each other in efforts to have normal conversations with whomever they were talking to. Students of a top High School Theatre Program. Which in the teachers eyes only meant they knew how to project.

"Everyone if I could please have your attention!"

The teacher gave up on shouting over them, and instead grabbed her secret weapon, the kids hated it. Raising the air horn over her head she pressed the nozzle down, the noise drowning out all sound on the bus immediately.

"OK! Now that I FINALLY have your attention, can I ask that you please keep it down. The bus drivers having a difficult time focusing on the road and will stop this bus if you don't bring the volume down! We're only, maybe half-an-hour away so that's the last thing you guys want, I'm sure. So please, just watch the noise level?"

The teacher sat down, rubbing her eyes, she knew the sound would be quiet for a while after her announcement, but in 15 minutes or so would return to its original intensity. She yawned, surprised that even after 2 red bulls she'd feel this drowsy. Her eyelids felt heavy and she noticed, the sound was actually getting quieter. She hear talks of naps and people mentioning how tired they were. She stood up, something wasn't right, these were energetic kids. As she looked down the bus she saw students adjust to get comfortable, ending conversations and falling asleep. She also noticed she wasn't the only one noticing something wrong with the situation, Alyse, a musical theatre major, looked scared and was trying to wake her friends up. The teacher turned to the driver.

"Hey, somethings-"

She ended her sentence when she saw the bus driver wearing a gas mask.

"Oh my god! Whats going on, what are you-"

She heard a thud behind her and realized Alyse had crumpled to the floor.

"Alyse...students...what..."

The teacher then too, fell to the ground, and the bus changed lanes, now heading in a new direction.


	3. Ni'sa

Ni'sa woke up and uncomfortable that she'd fallen asleep on the bus hoped she hadn't been messed with or drawn on. She opened her eyes, ready to face the inevitable but she still saw darkness. She shook her head in her vision slowly started to come, blurry at first but with an increasing focus on what was around her. Not a bus, but a room...And her classmates in that room...asleep.

"What the hell?"

She said in her usual foggy wake-up stupor. She looked around the room. There was a desk, a blackboard, some educational posters encouraging reading and displaying algebraic equations. As she looked around she felt something wrapped around her throat. She reached for her neck, and felt a collar...She wrapped her fingers around it and got ready to pull it off.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

A man with a briefcase walked in followed by two armed guards both pushing flatbed carts on top of which were multitudes of duffel bags.

"I'll explain in a second."

The man opened his briefcase and pulled out a remote. His finger pushed down on a button and Ni'sa howled out in pain. He'd done something to the collars and now her body writhed as an electrical current surged through her body, her shout however blended in with that of her classmates. Abruptly, the shock ceased.

"Now that I have all of your attention I'd like you to remain quiet while I explain. Your class has been selected to be a participant in the Battle Royale Program. We figured you'd all be naturals at this sorta thing considering you're used to outlasting each other..."

Pulling out a sheet of paper from the briefcase he went on.

"It says here that freshman year their was 72 of you. Eventually these students were cut from the Theatre Program all of you are part of as they weren't living up to artistic expectations."

He chuckled to himself and placed the paper on the desk, instead pulling another paper out of the briefcase. This one was folded into a half-sheet but looked more official, as it was a yellow shaded document with a seal on it. Breaking the seal he continued.

"Alright, here's the fun part where I explain what's going to happen...and what's happened thus far. You all were on a special senior only trip, we got one of our guys to fill in as the bus driver, rigged the bus with timers which regulated when our halothane sleeping gases would go off, knocking all of you guys unconscious while we got things ready. Now, we have access to a small island on which you are all on right now. Its mostly just forestry but there's a shoreline too of course and some hilly bush. Anywho, those collars around your neck is our guarantee that the cameras we've rigged all over this here island, capture plenty of grand footage of your heroic...or in other cases...cruel efforts. You will leave this room one by one, and to eliminate a fiasco we had one year where a player simply stood outside the exit doors and eliminated every player who came out afterwards we will knock you out again and crew members will dispatch you all in scattered locations, or however scattered we can get on this size of an island. But its good that the islands small because your not the biggest group we've ever gotten."

He laughed again. Ni'sa grew an annoyed look over her face as she tried to make the connections.

"We will wake you up using the same shock treatment we just used and the game will begin. The game I speak of is one in which theres only one winner...obviously. But the grand prize is your life."

There were gasps and murmurs heard throughout the room. Another shockwave quickly ended it though.

"On your way out you will choose one of these duffel bags, anyone you want, and its yours. Inside is a map, a little gidget that looks like this."

He pulled it out, displaying something that looked like a blackberry.

"It has the names of all your classmates on it...for now. Every 8 hours it will receive a signal that will most likely shorten this list. Also in the bag are 2 water bottles, and the staple of the teenage diet-"

He laughed at his own joke. Ni'sa felt her adrenaline began to race. She was growing increasingly frightened.


	4. Raina and Drew

"A box of personal pizza...plain just cheese as we couldn't entertain your individual likes considering the bags are randomly selected. The Pizza won't be piping hot but I've always found cold pizza tastes fine. A first aid-kit, and a weapon of random choice. Every bag has something diffrent that you can use at your discretion. You can even take someone elses weapon if yours isn't everything you hoped for. The bottom-line point of the game though. Kill or be killed. The last one standing wins. If no one dies in a 24 hour period, then all of the collars receive a signal that will kill all of you. Basically, two razors, stored on opposite sides of the front side will flip out, and slide their ways to each others ends. You will not live if that happens. The collars are irremovable, just trust me on that."

Raina allowed a tear to roll down her cheek, gripping Drew's hand increasingly tighter.

"Well, I think the rest you can figure out on your own so now I'll call your name and you can choose a duffel bag and leave the room. Just one, and no peeking..."

"You can't be serious!"

Raina turned, her teacher looked furious.

"I've listened to this bullshit for too long, you can't do this!"

"Ma'am"

"Don't freekin Ma'am me!"

"If you continue to be disruptive..."

"Then what, NO! I will not let-"

Shouts were heard around the room, girls broke into sobbing. Their teacher had been shot by the handgun the man had pulled from his briefcase.

"I hope that gets the point across that we're serious here. Oh, by the way, I'm the Battle Royale Battle Overseer. I play like, well basically the part of a principal, because I'll be making announcements over the intercom system and what not. Anyway lets get this show on the road...And yes, that was the last thing in my briefcase."

Raina turned away disgusted as the man chuckled at his own joke again. She buried her head in Drew's chest and he pulled her close.

"Boy #4-Joey Oneir"

Drew looked up, watched Joey stand up, fear written clearly in his eyes as he moved forward, grabbed the first bag he could, and almost started sobbing as he left the class by himself. More names were being called.

"Girl #9-Alyse Ellet."

Raina lifted her head up, and managed to capture Alyse's attention before she walked out, mouthing the word "Later."

The pace of the names were picking up, and Drew wondered what was in each persons bag, who would turn first, if Raina and he stood a chance.

"Girl #3- Ni'sa Jones."

"Boy # 12- Drew Yager."

Drew kissed Raina on the forehead, they had a clear understanding finding each other would be priority, no matter what. He left the room.

"Girl # 13- Mitsu White."

"Boy #1- Patrick Turton."

Raina let all the dark thoughts she'd had in her head begin racing through her head. What if she died? What if Drew died before she saw him again? What if Alyse turned against her?

"Boy #10-Michael Ousekirk"

Raina let out a whimper of pain and realized she'd been clenching her fists so tight her nails were digging into her skin. Then she remembered how hard she'd been holding Drew's hand. She began to worry she could have hurt him right before the game began.

"Boy #9- Kael Carthewood.

"Girl #10- Tiffani Meyaul."

Finally there were only 4 people left in the room. Now Raina's worried had shifted to, "What if all of the good weapons have already been taken?"

"Girl #14-Raina Shaw."

Standing up on uneasy feet she walked toward the cart that had the only bags left and chose the one furthest away from her. Already anxious to see what lay inside she left the room. A guard grabbed her arm and pulled her down the corridor before tossing her into a nearby room, and leaning in with a canister and holding down the nozzle. A fresh dose of sleeping gas to knock her unconscious again...


	5. 3 Days Later

"Hey wake up! He's on again..."

Raina wasn't too deep in her sleep. She was exhausted, and had only been able to sleep for about 5 minutes at a time before waking up and making sure everything was safe. She looked up at Drew. The cut on his face from the day before had begun to heal okay. She hung her head and listened as the Battle Overseer made the announcements.

"For one of the smallest classes we've ever had you kids certainly know how to drag something out. Day # 3 and I'm happy to say I get to make these announcements to a top 10 group. Normally the numbers don't even out like this. Anyway, I have 5 names to report to you if you haven't already seen the names disappear from your class list things..."

Raina sighed.

"Drew."

"Yeah"

"I think I lost mine..."

"Your tracking device?"

"No...that's in my bag...you know, weren't all the bags supposed to have a weapon?"

"I'm sure Alyse would love your tracking device over her fork"

"Yeah...I guess...is she back yet?"

"No, but I don't think she's dead either...Wherever she is, she's alive, and probably still looking for us."

"It just ticks me off that we got separated...who's left?"

Raina watched as Drew pulled out his class list.

"Tiffani, Ni'sa, Mitsu, Kael, Alyse, me, Michael, you, Joey, and Patrick.

"Shit..."

"What?"

"Fucking Kael and Mitsu are still fucking alive! Like what the fuck?"

Raina sighed again, this time with annoyance.

"Kael and Mitsu are fucking gonna win if they stay alive!"

"Well...yeah."

"No, like, because they keep killing everyone."

"You killed someone..."

"Don't remind me please...and it was out of defense, that bitch was choking me..."

Even though she was defending herself and reasoning her actions, Raina let a tear roll down her cheek. She was ashamed.

"I don't want to kill Drew...But I will...If its to help me or you...I will."

"I know..."

"God...Where's Alyse?"


	6. With a Heavy Heart

Alyse threw the door open, racing onward in a desperate attempt to escape

Alyse threw the door open, racing onward in a desperate attempt to escape. He was right behind her, there was no escape. She screamed out, hoping someone would come, rescue her from all of this.

"Get Away!"

She knocked over a chair as she ran about the cabin.

"NO!"

He picked her up in his arms, she flailed herself about as he began to drag her back into the room in the back.

Shrieking as loudly as possible, Alyse tried to contort herself in a way where he would drop her, by putting all her weight in one place. Failing, she changed tactics, she began to throw herself about. His grip began loosening, and in another moment she was free.

She threw herself through the window, producing rivulets of blood from her arms as the broken glass shattered around her. She hit the ground and tumbled, rolling forward. Without stopping for even a moment she leapt up and sprinted away. She'd gotten away from Joey, again. The last time she'd at least had Kyle distract him. Alyse felt her heart begin to ache as she remembered the early hours of the competition.

"_Stay away!"_

"_Kyle, its just me."_

"_Alyse!"_

_Kyle ran forward embracing Alyse. The two had known each other for more than ten years. Their parents were best friends, so as such, they in turn had become good friends throughout the years._

"_Kyle! What do I say…"_

"_I don't know. Alyse, you haven't been competing have you?"_

"_No! Of course not! You?"_

"_Never. Are you okay?"_

"_Yeah I'm-"_

"_DON'T MOVE!"_

_They both turned and saw Joey Oneir standing there, a crossbow in hand._

"_Hey that's mine!"_

"_Well its mine now Kyle!"_

_Joey laughed hysterically. The competition was fraying his mind and he hadn't slept since the game began._

"_It only has one arrow."_

"_Shut up Kyle. Or I'll shoot."_

_Alyse stared apprehensively at Joey. There was only one arrow….If he could just misfire they could run. Or if she ran sporadically he would most likely miss._

"_RUN KYLE!"_

_She sprinted away, and immediately noticed Kyle wasn't running with her, turning her head she saw the crossbow aimed directly at her, and Kyle diving in the way of the arrow._

Alyse refused to turn her head this time, and with a heavy heart, ran deeper into the wilderness.


End file.
